Love Live: Pokemon Duelers
by ShinyCDiver
Summary: A LL AU in which Pokemon exist in the Love Live universe. To save her school from shutting down, Honoka proposes that she and her friends become Pokemon Duelers like the more famous A-Rise. Together, they train their Pokemon to win the once a year competition known as Love Live. By doing so, they hope to gain enough attention to save their school from closing. On hiatus


**This took a while to write. Going back and forth between the actual episode and this document...I think I put more effort into making this match with the anime than Documentary.**

 **Until I can come up with a better name, this will be called Love Live: Pokemon Duelers. If you couldn't already tell, there won't be any mentions of school idols for the duration of this story.**

 **Apologies in advance if some of the description is weird. I've never written Pokemon fanfiction before.**

* * *

Right _now...my school is in a huge pinch. But I guess I should start at the beginning. I'm Kousaka Honoka, a second year at Otonokizaka Academy. It's a pretty well-established high school, perfect for starting trainers like myself. Yet, in my second year…_

"The school is shutting down?!" Honoka shouted, unable to believe what she was seeing, even though it was right in front of her face. The white flyer was innocent; it was the words that had been printed on it that stunned her.

"Weren't you listening when the principal went over it?" Umi and Kotori stood behind her, also looking at the paper that had been posted on the bulletin board.

"No way...My brilliant high school life is going to be cut short, just like that?" Honoka hung her head. She knelt down, reaching for her Pokemon for comfort. "Moka, you don't want the school to be closed down either, right?" Moka shook its head, tiny tears appearing at the corner of its eyes.

"Whether or not your Eevee, I mean Moka, wants it to be shut down, it's going to happen." Umi said. "I'm sure Buneary feels the same way, but there's nothing we can do." Honoka stood up, holding Moka in her arms. The ginger peered closely at the paper once again, reading it word for word, and collapsed.

"Honoka (-chan)!" Umi and Kotori hurried to catch their friend before she fell completely. Somehow, despite the loss of control of her limbs, Honoka had kept a hold on her Pokemon. "Hang in there, Honoka (-chan)!" Despite their cries, Honoka could feel her consciousness fading.

She woke up in the infirmary with Moka curled up on her chest. Honoka sat up, looking around to see if anyone else was there with her. "Oh! I get it. I was just dreaming." She picked up her Pokemon, waking it up in the process. "There's no way they'd just close the school so suddenly, right?" With that resolved in her mind, she got off of the infirmary bed. Moka wriggled in her arms and she let it down onto the floor. Together, they left the infirmary.

"Good morning!" She called cheerfully to her classmates. Moka also greeted them, running at its trainer's heels. "It's such nice weather today~" She was almost humming as she started past the bulletin boards. She tried hard to ignore the line of white paper that ran down the hall the length of the board, but her attention was eventually caught by one that was at least two times larger than the average paper. At any other time, she would have stared at it, wondering how they managed to find a printer large enough to print it out. Now, however, she simply stared at it in silent shock.

Honoka carried Moka into the classroom. She had lost all of her energy after deluding herself into thinking the school's closing down was nothing more than a dream only to be slapped in the face with it again. Both Kotori and Umi looked up at her when she walked in.

"A-Are you okay, Honoka-chan?" Kotori asked, taking in Honoka's less than enthusiastic appearance. Her Pidove fluttered over to Honoka's shoulder and landed there. Honoka shooed it off; she wasn't in the mood for playing with the Pokemon at the moment.

"Yeah…" Honoka set Moka down on her desk and sat down behind it. Then, as if just coming to terms with the news once again, she put her face into her hands. "The school's going to disappear…" Moka pawed at her hands, crying as well.

"Honoka-chan looks so sad…" Kotori said to Umi as they watched their childhood friend sob (?). "I had no idea she loved this school that much." Pidove had returned to her, and now sat on her head waiting to be noticed. Kotori lifted her hand up for the bird Pokemon to hop on and brought it back down to the desk.

Umi turned to Kotori, a bored expression on her face. "I doubt it. She's probably just confused." Buneary, seated on Umi's lap, nodded in agreement.

"Confused? About what?" Before Umi could answer that question, Honoka shot up from her seat. The other second year had tears in her eyes as she turned to them.

"What am I going to do?!" She cried suddenly. Honoka brought her hands down on Kotori's desk, which was enough cue for Pidove to waddle onto her. Honoka shooed the bird off again. "I haven't studied at all!"

"Huh?" Kotori stared down at the ginger, her confusion evident on her face.

"Because if this school closes down, I'll have to go to a new high school, right?!" Honoka shouted. "I haven't studied for either entrance or transfer exams!" Umi and Kotori exchanged knowing looks before turning back to their upset friend.

"I knew it." Umi said. Buneary nodded again.

"Honoka-chan, calm down-" Kotori started to say, but she was interrupted by Honoka.

"You two have nothing to worry about, but I do! Both of you get good grades…" Honoka started sobbing into her hands again. Pidove flapped over to land on her head, and this time, Honoka let it stay there. "But I can't even do average…" Moka voiced its agreement from its spot still on Honoka's desk.

"Calm down and listen to us already." Umi scolded her. "The school's not closing down until we graduate." The speed at which Honoka stopped crying made Umi wonder if it had all just been an act.

"Eh?"

* * *

It was lunchtime now, and as always, Honoka and her friends ate their lunch under the shade of the large tree. She eagerly munched on the bread she had bought from the school store as Kotori told her what she hadn't understood when she first read the notices.

"The school is closing, but not until all the current students graduate. It'll stay open another three years." Kotori said. She picked off a small bit of her rice ball for her Pidove to eat. It was sitting on her shoulder, gratefully accepting the morsel of food that had been offered to it.

"That's a relief!" Honoka wasn't the type to stay down over things after she had learned it wasn't that big of a deal. "Today's bread is delicious!" She took another big bite of the bread after she had made that comment. "Here, Moka!" Like Kotori, she tore a piece of her bread off and tossed it to her Pokemon.

"You're going to get fat." Umi was chastising her again.

"But...if it's made official, no first years will be allowed to enroll. Next year will only be second years and third years." Kotori said, her eyes downcast.

"This year's first years will never have a class underneath them." Umi continued, following the same conversation point Kotori had left off on.

"I see…" Her bread didn't taste as good anymore, and Honoka lowered it onto her lap. Moka bounced, trying to reach the food, but it backed up when another student approached the three second years.

"Hey." A beautiful blonde stood in front of them. The ribbon on her uniform, and on the girl standing slightly behind her, was green, indicating that they were both third years. "Do you have a moment?" And behind both students were two Pokemon Honoka had heard of but never seen before.

"Y-Yes!" Honoka, Kotori, and Umi stood up as one. Honoka turned slightly to Umi.

"Who is she?" She whispered.

"The student council president." Umi responded somewhat irritably.

"Minami-san." Kotori jumped slightly as she was addressed. "You're the chairwoman's daughter, correct?"

"Y-Yes…"

"Did she tell you about today's announcement in advance?" The third year's eyes narrowed as she asked that question.

"N-no. I just heard about it today too…"

"I see." The third year turned away from them. "Thank you."

"See ya." The other third year said, turning in time with her companion. The Pokemon that were accompanying the two students dipped their heads and followed after their trainers.

Honoka stepped out of line from her friends. "U-Um!" The blonde looked back at her. "I-Is the school...is the school really going to close?"

"...It's nothing that any of you have to worry about." She turned her back on them once more and walked away.

* * *

Through the rest of the class period, Honoka thought about the school's circumstances and came to what she believed was a relatively good plan of action. "The school's going to close down if the amount of people enrolling is too low. So all we have to do is show what our school is good for, and people will come in! Then the school will be saved!"

"And what exactly are the good points of our school?" Umi asked.

"Um...it has a long history!"

"Right. Anything else?"

"'Anything else'?! You want more?!" Honoka thought about it. "Let's see...it has a rich tradition that people can take part of!"

"That's basically the same as what you said before."

"Ehh? Um...then...then…" Honoka couldn't come up with anything else. "Help me out, Kotori-chan!" The other second year had just been silently watching the back-and-forth conversation between her two friends while feeding her Pidove bread crust but she took the baton rather easily.

"Something that's great about this school...it's been here for a long time, I guess?" The three of them were back in the classroom now, in almost exactly the same positions they had been in that morning. Both Honoka and Umi looked at her with deadpan expressions; she had simply reworded what Honoka had already said two times before.

"Kotori. You weren't listening to a single thing we were saying, weren't you?" Umi asked her.

"But I did some research earlier!" On Kotori's shoulder, Pidove puffed its chest out. "I managed to find a few nice club activities."

"Really?" This was the best news they had gotten so far.

"Yeah, but none of them are really worth mentioning…" Kotori admitted. "The most recent achievement for this school was...sixth place in the Kanto Abacus Competition." Just hearing the name of that competition was enough to instantly bore Honoka.

"That doesn't sound very impressive." Moka nodded, agreeing with its trainer.

"The school choir received honorable mentions in the district preliminaries." Kotori continued, reading off the paper she had written her notes upon.

"I wish they did better." Umi gave a quiet sigh, her Buneary mimicking her.

"And the last one is...the robot club being disqualified before their competition even began."

"That's really bad!" Honoka groaned, falling dramatically to the floor again.

"Now that I think about it," Umi said, "if any of those things had been mildly attractive, we wouldn't have this problem in the first place."

"That's true." Kotori put down her papers. Honoka peered over the edge of the desk, still unhappy with the results they had turned up. Kotori hurried to add on to her last statement. "I'll go home and ask my mom if there's anything else we can use."

* * *

Honoka returned from school, still displeased about the announcement that had taken place that morning. She entered the lounge, where her younger sister was lying on the floor, reading a magazine.

"Oh! Welcome back, Onee-chan! And Moka-chan too!"

"I'm back…" Honoka dropped her school bag onto the floor and sat at the low table while Moka trotted over to Yukiho for some attention. Her younger sister petted the Pokemon as requested, but sat up as Honoka sighed deeply.

"Want some chocolate?" Honoka held her hand out for it and Yukiho dropped the wrapped up candy into her hand. "There's red bean paste in it though."

"Thank you." Honoka unwrapped the chocolate and put it in her mouth, despite both Yukiho's and Moka's stunned reactions. She chewed slowly. "Wait! This has red bean paste in it!"

"I warned you!" Yukiho shouted immediately in her own defense.

Honoka fell back against the tatami floor. "I'm sick of red bean paste!"

"We have white bean paste chocolates too." Her younger sister offered her.

"I'm even more sick of that!" The door to the lounge slid open; Honoka's mother did not look pleased at having to come to the house while she was still running the shop out front.

"Honoka!" Both girls looked at the open doorway. "We sell Japanese sweets here! Please stop yelling that you're sick of red bean paste! Our customers can hear you!"

"I'm sorry." Honoka responded. Yukiho, in the meantime, had returned to her magazine. She was pretending not to be involved. Her mother nodded and slid the door shut; Honoka sat up at the table so that Moka could sit on her lap again. She glanced over at her sister and saw a pamphlet on the floor next to her. "Yukiho, what's that?"

Her younger sister glanced over. "Oh. UPX? I'm applying there next year." Honoka's curiosity had been piqued, and she leaned over to pick up the pamphlet. She opened it to read.

Honoka flipped through a few pages of the pamphlet before stopping at a picture of three girls. They were covered in dirt, but their expressions-and that of their Pokemon-showed nothing but the greatest satisfaction. "So they're doing stuff like this, huh?"

"You didn't know?" Yukiho didn't look up from her magazine as she spoke, but Honoka looked over at her younger sister. "It's the most popular school right now, and lots of students are applying there."

"That's amazing…" At that point, Honoka remembered something. "Wait, Yukiho?!" She turned to her younger sister, forcing her to back up against the wardrobe. "You're not applying to Otonokizaka?!" Moka growled, voicing its displeasure about Yukiho's choice of school.

"Why'd it take you so long to respond?!" It had been the first thing Yukiho had said in regards to the school after being questioned about the pamphlet. Honoka turned and slid the door open.

"Mom! Moom!" She shouted down the hall. Her mother appeared at the other end. "Yukiho's not going to Otonokizaka!"

"I know that."

"But she has to! You and Grandmother both went to Otonokizaka!" Honoka couldn't understand why her mother was so calm about it. It was almost a family tradition for the female side of the family to attend that school.

"You know...isn't Otonokizaka shutting down?" Yukiho said, forcing Honoka to look at her again.

"The news already spread?!" Honoka shouted in disbelief.

"Everyone's saying that applying to that school is a waste of time now. There's only one first year class, so coming next year, there won't be anymore!"

"That's not true! Right now, Kotori-chan, Umi-chan, and I are all thinking about ways to save the school! Our Pokemon are as well! We won't let it shut down!" Yukiho sighed, turning away from her sister.

"You're so stubborn. No matter how I look at it, I can't see you saving the school."

* * *

Honoka sighed. Alone in her room, she had just gotten off a phone call with Kotori. The chairwoman wasn't even sad about the possibility of the school shutting down. According to Kotori, her mother was even planning vacations to take once the school had closed. Honoka sighed again, hugging Moka for comfort. Her gaze went to the UPX pamphlet Yukiho had let her keep. "Maybe we should go there tomorrow...and see what makes their school better than ours." She fell over on her bed, hugging her Pokemon close to her. "I really don't want Otonokizaka to shut down…"

The next morning, Honoka and Moka walked over to the location on the pamphlet. The school building was a skyscraper, much more fitting in among the city's skyline than their own brick school. She shook her head; she had come here to find out why UPX was popular and use it for her own school. But, as she looked in through the glass, the school seemed so much more technologically advanced. She could even see that every student there had their Pokemon microchipped, with a scanner ready on one side for the Pokemon to walk through just as the students scanned their phones.

A loud cheer next to her caught her attention and she backed up to look up at the large screen that hung above the entrance to the school.

" _Welcome to UPX High School!"_ It was the three girls that were in the pamphlet she was still holding. They were cleaned up this time, and their Pokemon shone brilliantly. She turned to the closest person to her, hoping to find out more information about the three. She wished she didn't, as the girl next to her was suspiciously decked out in an oversized coat, sunglasses, and a facemask.

"Um…" Honoka had no choice but to proceed with her chosen action since the other girl was now looking at her, albeit a bit disdainfully. "Are those girls celebrities or something?"

"What?! How can you not tell?!" Honoka flinched away. The girl's Pokemon was lecturing Moka as well, to the Pokemon's surprise. "It's even written in that pamphlet you're holding!" The suspicious girl snatched the pamphlet out of her hand and showed her the page. "They're A-Rise."

"A-Rise?" Honoka repeated once the girl had let go of her sleeve.

"They're Pokemon Duelers." The girl said. She seemed to have come to a reluctant agreement to tell Honoka what she knew, as if she was pitying her.

"Duel...ers?"

"Yes. They're only the high school equivalent, but it's still pretty amazing. Don't you know anything?" Honoka looked back up at the screen. A-Rise was still waving in the recorded video. She had to admit their Pokemon did look tougher than the average high school girl's Pokemon. As she watched, the clip changed to a overview of a dirt arena. The three girls, each partnered with a single Pokemon, ran in separate directions from each other. They commanded their Pokemon in battles against their opponents, each move used by them or against them manipulated perfectly to show off their Pokemon even in the middle of battle. It culminated with the three girls each taking a flag, as they had wiped out the opposing team without any loss on their part. The crowd cheered at their victory, even though it was an event that had taken place long before this day.

Honoka turned away, unable to take the sheer amount of cheering that was taking place at the school's entrance. Moka followed at her heels. "T-This is it, Moka. This is the best idea I've ever had!"

* * *

"Look at this!" She dropped a stack of magazines onto Kotori's desk for both of her friends to look at. Honoka had arrived at school, a bit out of breath since she had run all the way from UPX, but she was still smiling brightly as she showed off the magazines. "Duelers, you guys! Duelers!" She flipped the topmost magazine open. "This group's from Osaka, and these girls are from Fukuoka!" Honoka pushed the magazine into Umi's hands for the bluenette to read. She then turned to Kotori. "Schools having their own Pokemon Duelers is becoming a normal thing! And schools with popular Duelers are getting more applicants! So here's the plan I came up with...huh?" The seat across from Kotori's was startlingly empty. Honoka hurried to the doorway. "Umi-chan!" The second year jumped; she had been hoping to get away before she was noticed. "I'm not done talking here!"

"I-I have something I need to do…" Umi said, glancing back at her friend. Kotori joined Honoka at the doorway.

"But it's such a good plan! You have to hear me out!" Honoka complained. Beside her, Kotori laughed nervously. Umi sighed, and turned fully to Honoka.

"You're going to suggest that we become Pokemon Duelers, right?"

Honoka was taken aback. "Umi-chan, are you a psychic type?!"

"Anyone could tell what your plan was!" Umi retorted instantly.

Honoka sidled over to Umi. "That saves me the problem of explaining then. Let's go to our teacher and form a Dueler club!"

"No thank you." Umi shot her down almost instantly.

"Why not?!" Honoka ran back into the classroom and returned with a magazine. "But they look so cool! Look how they're shining! You don't get to battle like that everyday you know?!"

"Do you honestly think we'll attract more students if we did that?!" Honoka backed up a bit, unable to answer that question. "The Pokemon Duelers in that magazine are girls that have been working at it earnestly, like professionals. There's no way it'll work out that well if we're just starting it out now!" Umi glared at her, trying to get her point across. "I'll be blunt. There's no way we're going to become Duelers!"

* * *

Afterschool, Honoka stood on the rooftop, listening to the chants of the sports teams training on the field below. "Aw...I thought it was a pretty good idea…" She looked down at her Pokemon. "Didn't you think so too, Moka?" Moka nodded vigorously; Honoka knelt to pick up the Eevee. As she stood back up, she heard the unmistakable sounds of a Pokemon hard at training.

Honoka carried her Pokemon back down through the school and out into the back. She saw a red haired girl commanding her Pokemon. As she watched, the small Pokemon charged headfirst at a rock, shattering it to pieces. Unable to help herself, Honoka clapped, loudly. The rock had easily been two times the size of the Pokemon, perhaps even larger. The girl turned to look at her, flinching as if she had seen something far more threatening than an older student.

"Amazing!" Honoka said, jogging over to the other student. Moka approached the other Pokemon more cautiously, sniffing at its strange scent. "That's really amazing! You and your Pokemon!"

"It's not that much…" She saw now that the girl she was talking to was a first year and was even more amazed.

"Your Pokemon is so strong! And the way you commanded it was so graceful! You looked cool enough to be a Dueler!" The girl blushed, taken aback by the sudden praise. She gestured to her Pokemon and it fell in line behind her as she started to walk away. "Um! I know this is sudden, but would you like to try becoming a Pokemon Dueler?"

The first year student looked like she was interested, but then scowled at Honoka. "What's with that? I don't even know you." She walked past Honoka, entering back into the school from the back entrance.

"I guess not…" Honoka laughed to herself. She sighed; the girl had pretty good potential, based on what little knowledge she had. "Well, there's no helping it, Moka. We're just going to have to try our best on our own!"

"Quick Attack!" She pointed at the rock that they had been using as practice. Moka charged at it, building up power the further it ran across the dirt. With a sharp cry, Moka hit the rock at full power, but it didn't even make a crack. "Aw...how did she do it? And she's only a first year…" Moka trotted back to Honoka. "But we aren't giving up! Once more, Moka! Quick Attack!" Her Pokemon nodded and dashed off again, once more heading for the rock.

Unbeknownst to Honoka, Umi and Kotori were watching her. They watched as Moka bounced harmlessly off the rock for the second time in a row, landing sprawled in the dirt.

"You know what, Umi-chan?" Umi looked at Kotori. "I think...I'll give it a try. This Dueler thing." Kotori turned to Umi, a smile on her face. "What are you going to do?"

Honoka was a bit frustrated. She hadn't trained Moka at all before, but she didn't think that they would be this weak at battling. She was so focused on breaking the rock that she didn't notice her friends behind her until Umi placed a hand on her shoulder. "W-Whoa! Umi-chan!"

"There's no point in training on your own. The three of us should train together." Honoka couldn't believe her ears. Umi, who had been so against her earlier, was offering to train with her?

"Umi-chan!" Honoka hugged Umi tightly. "Thank you!"

With the addition of her friends, Honoka went directly to the student council with a filled out club application form. She placed it in front of the student council president, who looked at it with a bored expression.

"What's this?" The blonde asked at last, still keeping that same expression on her face.

"An application to form a Dueler club!" Honoka said proudly.

"I can tell that much. But you need five members to form any club, even an appreciation society."

"Ehh…?" Honoka held up her hand. They had three members now, so to make five, they would need to more people to join their force. "Two more huh? Got it. Let's go." She took Umi and Kotori by their hands and prepared to leave the council room.

"Wait." Honoka turned around; the student council president had stood up. "Why do you want to create a Dueler club now? You're second years, aren't you?"

"We want to save the school from closing down." Honoka told her. "And Pokemon Duelers are really popular now!"

"Then I can't let you form the club even if you get five people." The third year said coldly. "Club activities aren't to be used to recruit new people in. And a hastily thrown together idea such as the one you're proposing won't do anything either." She held out the club application form for Honoka to take. "Focus on what you want to do for your remaining two years here."

Honoka walked out of the school with her two classmates. They had left the application form in the student council, seeing as they couldn't form the club right away.

"Honoka (-chan)..." Umi and Kotori looked to her, knowing that the energy she had for her plan was almost completely pointless if they weren't approved for a club.

"...do it." Honoka muttered, earning confused looks from both of her friends. She lifted her head. "I'm still going to do it! Whether or not she approves it, we still can do what we can do! We'll train hard and make it there on our own!" Umi and Kotori smiled at each other. Honoka looked at each of them in turn, and nodded. Their journey would start from that very moment.

* * *

 **Pokemon introduced this time around:**

 **Moka- Honoka's Eevee. Takes after her trainer and does her best for Honoka, even if she doesn't currently have the ability.**

 **Buneary- Umi's Buneary. Umi doesn't believe in nicknaming her Pokemon, though both Kotori and Honoka have tried convincing her to do so.**

 **?- Kotori's Pidove. Kotori has nicknamed her Pokemon, but she hasn't said the name out loud yet so it will be left as '?'.**

 **And some other unnamed Pokemon, along with their currently unnamed trainers.**

 **Some terms:**

 **Otonokizaka Academy: Shortened name of Otonokizaka Academy of Pokemon Trainers.**

 **UPX: A reworking of UTX for the sole purpose of making it connected to Pokemon.**

 **Pokemon Duelers: Participants of the female-only competition that takes place once a year. There are many divisions, starting from elementary school all the way to professional adults. The one that A-Rise participates in is in the high school division, known more widely by its much more popular name: Love Live.**

 **Let me know how this is going and if I should continue into the next chapter or not. :D**


End file.
